On Fri, Feb 25, 2022 at 02:32:38PM -0800, Thaths via Silklist wrote: > I am setting myself the goal of reading at least one book from every single > country on Earth. What are some books you would recommend that are set in a > specific country? Why? > > More details: > > 1. Since I am only comfortable reading in English, it has to be an English > translation (or written in English to begin with). > > 2. Country could be interpreted loosely: Past or Present. Disputed or > recognized. > > 3. Genre no bar - It could be fiction, non-fiction, whatever.
Cool. I hope you had not given up waiting? I know that sooner or laterit has to become big. Someone already started public doc with intention to satisfy your craving for book titles. Well, I, I decided to drop a database on your head. Actually, it is rather primitive db embedded in a shell script, which can do some simple stuff, like print records matching a search criterium. Since db contains some Unicode, I think the safe way would be to operate it inside xterm terminal emulator (for those who want to use it under some Unix-like system). This is because older terminals could react in fancy way when trying to display characters outside of ASCII charset. Under Windows and Mac, I have not enough experience to suggest anything, but newer versions should work flawlessly. The script had been tested on Parrot Linux, using bash and gawk. It could be rewritten in most programming languages du jour but I will probably keep mine in current form and maybe try to run something like it on some ancient Unix, because I wonder if it could possibly work there, too. The script contains snippets in awk, and so if someone would like to extend it, knowing awk is probably a must. For your convenience I have included the record about excellent book on the subject, see below. Of course, there is no requirement to run any script if you do not like the idea. The db text is rather easy to read and it even should be trivially easy to convert into some other format. Short description, how to: $ cat ./thathsbooks.sh | md5sum ; wc <./thathsbooks.sh 4961f23c448d4c54686daa84f985a14b - 437 1895 11062 An md5 sum && wc is to make sure you have the same thing I have. $ ./thathsbooks.sh --match 子 CO Ancient China WR ca. Vc BCE AU Sun Tzu AU cn: 孫子 TI The Art of War TI cn: 孫子兵法 AD What the title says. Nuances of power and war. And you can dump the whole db into the file, edit it however you please, and later on use it with the same script: $ ./thathsbooks.sh --dump > thaths.tdb $ ./thathsbooks.sh --file thaths.tdb --match 子 CO Ancient China WR ca. Vc BCE AU Sun Tzu AU cn: 孫子 TI The Art of War TI cn: 孫子兵法 AD What the title says. Nuances of power and war. And some summary report. However, since some records belong to more than one country, the line about "total" is a bit misleading - it is really the number of (title, country) pairs. $ ./thathsbooks.sh --countries Pre-medieval Greece: 1 Byzantine Empire: 1 Persian Empire: 1 Middle East: 1 Ancient Greece: 2 Romania: 1 France: 6 Congress Poland: 4 Maurya Empire: 1 Cuba: 1 Ireland: 1 Colombia: 1 Poland: 7 Old Babylonian Empire: 1 Greece: 1 Japan: 3 Czechoslovakia: 2 Germany: 2 Argentine: 3 German Confederation: 1 Ancient China: 1 Italy: 3 Peru: 3 United States of America: 5 ---------- total: 53 So, now if someone wanted to learn about this AWK language... $ ./thathsbooks.sh --file thaths.tdb --match awk CO United States of America WR 1988 AU Alfred V. Aho AU Brian W. Kernighan AU Peter J. Weinberger TI The AWK Programming Language AD tag: programming languages AD tag: computer science AD url: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13451454 And '--match' option can also take regular expression: $ ./thathsbooks.sh --file thaths.tdb --match 'tag.*computer' CO United States of America WR 1988 AU Alfred V. Aho AU Brian W. Kernighan AU Peter J. Weinberger TI The AWK Programming Language AD tag: programming languages AD tag: computer science AD url: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13451454 For my own fancy I have included two books I recommended to you two years ago, let us see - yeah, it still works! $ ./thathsbooks.sh --file thaths.tdb --match 'tag.*reco.*Rola.*2020' CO Italy WR 1988 AU Umberto Eco TI Foucault's Pendulum AD I like this book and I think it captures something. What it is? AD tag: recommended by Tomasz Rola 20200120 CO German Confederation CO Germany WR 1831 AU Arthur Schopenhauer TI Eristic Dialectic: The Art of Winning an Argument TI a.k.a. The Art of Being Right: 38 Ways to Win an Argument TI a.k.a. The Art of Controversy AD A relatively modern philosopher writes something useful. AD tag: recommended by Tomasz Rola 20200120 Ok, this is it. Now the script itself. Have fun. ----- thathsbooks.sh start ---- #!/bin/bash ## ## @ Tomasz Rola, 20220314 0612 ## License: BSD Zero Clause License ## ( as described in wikipedia, it mostly says you are on your own: ## https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSD_licenses ) ## ## A script with small database embedded in it. Records are in ## multiline format. Empty line marks record boundaries. Script allows ## some easy operations on the database, see below for details. ## export DBFILE="" ThathsDBDump() { if [ "x${DBFILE}" == "x" ] then cat <<DBEND ;; start thats.tdb alias CO Country alias WR Year written or printed alias AU Author alias TI Title alias PL Place & time of action alias AD Additional info CO Congress Poland CO Poland WR 1895 AU Bolesław Prus PL Ancient Egypt, ca. XI century BCE TI Pharaoh AD About nuances of power and war. CO Congress Poland CO Poland WR 1889 AU Bolesław Prus TI The Doll PL XIX century, mostly Warsaw, then under Russian rule. AD About life among and against the people. Also, in the foreground: AD love story without happy-end. CO Congress Poland CO Poland WR 1899 AU Władysław Reymont TI The Promised Land PL XIX/XX century, Lodz, under Russian rule. AD It is the end of XIX century and three friends want to make AD themselves into industrial tycoons in a landscape of beeming AD capitalist city of Lodz. CO Congress Poland CO Poland WR 1909 AU Władysław Reymont TI The Peasants PL Late XIX century, a village somewhere near Warsaw. AD Community vs individuality plus village life, love, death, life, circle. CO France CO Poland WR ca. 1800 AU Jan Potocki TI The Manuscript Found in Saragossa PL XVII century, Spain AD A so called frame-tale. Plenty of ghosts, haunted places, lands AD depopulated and wild, where people are scared to travel because they AD may fell victim of thugs and devils. But it is really fun to read. CO Poland WR 1953 AU Czesław Miłosz TI The Captive Mind PL Middle XXc, Europe AD Writer gives his analysis of early form of totalitarianism. CO Poland WR 1954 AU Stanisław Lem TI The Star Diaries PL Mostly, the Laniakea Supercluster, I think. AD Overally, whatever you read of this writer should be good. For me, AD he is more of a philosopher than sci-fi writer (as many would like to AD see him), but, whatever suits the reader. CO Persian Empire CO Ancient Greece WR V century BCE AU Herodotus TI Histories PL Mediterranea, Asia Minor AD Greco-Persian wars of V century BCE and what could possibly have started it. CO Middle East WR ca XIIc but probably few centuries earlier AU many TI One Thousand and One Nights TI a.k.a. Arabian Nights PL Islamic world in times of islamic golden age as seen in a mirror of folktale AD If you ever want to delve into this, make sure you get long (or AD adult) version, which - depending on print - would be many volumes, AD eight to twelve or maybe more. I have read a bit from Polish edition AD which came in nine volumes. The work itself seems to be based on earlier AD cultures. CO Byzantine Empire CO Pre-medieval Greece WR ca II-V c AU Diogenes Laertius TI Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers AD History of Greek philosophy before IIIc. I am not sure what is AD inside, really, because the book is waiting on a shelf, still in AD plastic wrap. Also: read and weep - so many books have been destroyed AD and now we only know of some because LD mentioned them in a brief AD passage. CO Old Babylonian Empire WR ca 1750BCE AU unknown clerk probably, under king Hammurabi authority TI Code of Hammurabi AD Quite interesting read. They seemingly had very low budget for prisons. CO United States of America WR 1909 AU Jack London TI Martin Eden PL USA, start of XXc. CO United States of America WR 1930 AU John Dos Passos TI The 42nd Parallel PL USA, first half of XXc AD This is the first book of trilogy "U.S.A.", together with "1919" and AD "The Big Money" but I have read only the first part, so far. CO United States of America WR 2005 AU Cormac McCarthy TI No Country for Old Men PL Contemporary USA CO Ireland WR 1892 AU William Butler Yeats TI The Countess Kathleen and Various Legends and Lyrics AD Warning: poetry. CO Argentine WR 1935 AU Jorge Luis Borges TI A Universal History of Infamy AD The book starts with depictions of criminal depravities and ends with... CO Argentine WR 1963 AU Julio Cortazar TI Hopscotch AD Love story, stream of consciousness, descent into psychic disorder, AD or whatever else you can find in it. CO Argentine WR 1975 AU Julio Cortazar TI Fantomas contra los vampiros multinacionales TI or: Fantomas Versus the Multinational Vampires AD I have read this as an early teen and this was not for early teens. And AD not for children. CO Peru WR 1963 AU Mario Vargas Llosa TI The Time of the Hero TI a.k.a. The City and the Dogs PL Lima, Peru, ca. 1950-1960 AD Coming of age, individual vs group vs customs. CO Peru WR 1977 AU Mario Vargas Llosa TI Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter PL Lima, Peru, ca. 1960? AD Coming of age with very specific view of the world, either you love AD it and laugh, or I have no idea what. Also, peculiar love stories AD (there is more than one). CO Peru WR 1981 AU Mario Vargas Llosa TI The War of the End of the World PL Brazil, late XIXc AD Famine, messiah, the poor against the army sent by the rich. CO Cuba WR 1962 AU Alejo Carpentier TI Explosion in a Cathedral PL XVIII/XIXc Caribbean region, France, some Spain AD French Revolution arrives to Caribbean, elements of different AD worlds (mostly African and European) mix up on top of tropical AD background. All revolutions is grass. CO Germany WR 1901 AU Thomas Mann TI Buddenbrooks PL City of Lübeck, around 1830-1880 AD A wealthy family falls and declines. CO Colombia WR 1962 AU Gabriel García Márquez TI The Evil Hour PL A village somewhere in Colombia AD Life in the age of political divides and dictature. CO Ancient Greece WR VII-VIc BCE AU Aesop TI Fables CO France WR 1843 AU Astolphe-Louis-Léonor, Marquis de Custine TI Letters from Russia TI fr: La Russie en 1839 AD What the title says. There is no such work in French wikisources but there AD is one in Project Gutenberg. CO France WR 1842 AU Alexandre Dumas (father) TI The Fencing Master TI fr: Le Maître d'armes AD What the title says. There is no such work in French wikisources and not AD in Project Gutenberg either. But they have anything else by this author, AD seemingly. CO France WR 1841 AU Alexandre Dumas (father) TI Celebrated Crimes AD What the title says. There is no such work in French wikisources but there AD is one in Project Gutenberg. CO Maurya Empire WR IIc BCE = IIIc CE AU Kautilya or Vishnugupta or Chanakya TI Arthashastra TI Sanskrit: अर्थशास्त्रम् AD According to wikipedia, the name means "Science of wealth". I have found it AD by chance, while looking for something else. Fragments which I have read so AD far look quite promising. Now it is just a matter of pushing epub onto the AD reader... CO Czechoslovakia WR 1920 AU Karel Čapek TI R.U.R. TI Rossum's Universal Robots AD This is a theatrical play in which the word "robot" was used for AD the first time. CO United States of America WR 1988 AU Alfred V. Aho AU Brian W. Kernighan AU Peter J. Weinberger TI The AWK Programming Language AD tag: programming languages AD tag: computer science AD url: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13451454 CO Czechoslovakia WR 1923 AU Jaroslav Hašek TI The Good Soldier Švejk TI cz: Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka za světové války PL Northern Austro-Hungarian Empire during first half of WW1, ca. 1914-1916 AD Passive resistance to people who want you to become a dead hero. CO France WR 1759 AU Voltaire TI Candide TI fr: Candide, ou l'Optimisme CO France WR 1780 AU Denis Diderot TI Jacques the Fatalist and his Master TI fr: Jacques le fataliste et son maître CO Ancient China WR ca. Vc BCE AU Sun Tzu AU cn: 孫子 TI The Art of War TI cn: 孫子兵法 AD What the title says. Nuances of power and war. CO Italy WR 1513 AU Niccolò Machiavelli TI The Prince AD What the title says. Nuances of power and war. CO Italy WR 1958 AU Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa TI The Leopard TI it: Il Gattopardo AD I have not read it but someone once wrote this book allows one to better AD understand Italy and Italians. CO Italy WR 1988 AU Umberto Eco TI Foucault's Pendulum AD I like this book and I think it captures something. What it is? AD tag: recommended by Tomasz Rola 20200120 CO German Confederation CO Germany WR 1831 AU Arthur Schopenhauer TI Eristic Dialectic: The Art of Winning an Argument TI a.k.a. The Art of Being Right: 38 Ways to Win an Argument TI a.k.a. The Art of Controversy AD A relatively modern philosopher writes something useful. AD tag: recommended by Tomasz Rola 20200120 CO Japan WR ca. 1645 AU Miyamoto Musashi TI Book Of Five Rings TI jp: 五輪書 AD "The Way is in training" CO Japan WR 1962 AU Kōbō Abe TI The Woman in the Dunes TI jp: 砂の女 TI literary: Sand Woman AD So, what is freedom? CO Japan WR 1982 AU Haruki Murakami TI A Wild Sheep Chase AD I know everybody would recommend Murakami but there is something in AD this book. CO United States of America WR 1946 AU Ruth Benedict TI The Chrysanthemum and the Sword AD An antropologist writes about Japan. CO Romania WR 1956 AU Mircea Eliade TI The Forge and the Crucible TI fr: Forgerons et alchimistes AD Controversial antropologist takes reader on a ride around antropological AD disneyland. Such summary may be viewed as diminishing until you realise that AD perhaps an antropologist would not mind going to disneyland, or maybe even AD eat and sleep there, in hiding... My second book by Eliade, after "Youth AD without youth" which was a novel. CO Greece WR 1946 AU Nikos Kazantzakis TI Zorba the Greek TI a.k.a. Life and Times of Alexis Zorbas PL Island of Crete, Greece after WW1 AD Have fun while you can. ;; end thats.tdb DBEND else cat ${DBFILE} fi } ##echo;echo "xx";echo;echo "$*";echo "1: ${1}";echo "numa: $#" if [ $# -eq 0 ] || [ "$1" == "--help" ] then echo "Usage:" echo " $0 --help" echo " $0 --file databaseinthefile" echo " $0 --dump" echo " $0 --countries" echo " $0 --match string|regexp" echo " bye bye" exit 1 fi while [ $# -gt 0 ] do case ${1} in "--file") export DBFILE=${2} shift 2 ;; "--dump") ThathsDBDump shift ;; "--countries") ThathsDBDump | awk ' /^alias\\ / {next;} /^CO/ {$1="";cnt[$0]++;} END {for(c in cnt) {tot+=cnt[c]; printf("%s: %d\n",c,cnt[c]);} printf("----------\n total: %d\n",tot);}' shift ;; "--match") ThathsDBDump | awk ' BEGIN {RS="";IGNORECASE = 1;} /^alias\\ / {next;} /'${2}'/ {printf("%s\n\n", $0);}' shift 2 ;; *) echo "unknown options: $*" exit 1 ;; esac done ----- thathsbooks.sh end ---- -- Regards, Tomasz Rola -- ** A C programmer asked whether computer had Buddha's nature. ** ** As the answer, master did "rm -rif" on the programmer's home ** ** directory. And then the C programmer became enlightened... ** ** ** ** Tomasz Rola mailto:[email protected] ** _______________________________________________ Silklist mailing list Manage your membership here: https://lists.digeratus.in/postorius/lists/silklist.lists.digeratus.in/
